The current situation of China's environmental protection ink is not optimistic

Business Club March 6th News Ink is an indispensable basic material for printing, and it is also one of the largest sources of pollution in the printing industry. In today's call for the development of a low-carbon economy and the promotion of green printing, the production and use of green inks is increasingly becoming the consensus of the ink and printing industries.

Current situation: Green ink started late Compared with developed countries and regions such as Europe, America and Japan, the production and use of environmental protection ink in our country started late.

Since traditional solvent-based inks use a large amount of benzene-based solvents, European and American countries have gradually replaced water-based inks with conventional solvent-based inks since 2000. Japan also issued related environmental ink standards in 2002, and banned the use of benzene inks in foods. , medicines and maternal and child supplies packaging applications. Yang Hong, former director of the National Ink Information Center, wrote that the countries and regions have not only adopted strict production and use standards for environmental protection inks, but also implemented very strict supervision and inspection.

However, China began to produce environmentally-friendly inks in 2005, and related standards have only been released since 2007. In 2007, the recommended national environmental protection standards “Technical Requirements for Offset Printing of Environmental Marking Ink” and “Gravure Printing Ink and Flexo Ink for Technical Requirements of Environmental Labeling” were issued in succession. Their residues on heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, and benzene solvents in inks were The requirements for use were met; the "Food Safety Law" that began on June 1, 2009 incorporated food packaging materials and containers into the scope of food safety, and implemented the mandatory national standard "Hygienic Standards for the Use of Additives for Food Containers and Packaging Materials". Benzene solvents are not included in the list; the recommended national standard "Packaging Plastic Film, Bag Dry Compounding, and Extrusion Compounding", which was implemented on August 1, 2009, stipulates that benzene solvent residues are not detected.

The use of environmentally friendly ink in printing and packaging companies is not optimistic. According to Yang Weimin, Shijiazhuang Hebei People's Federation of Plastics Flexible Packaging Technology Development Alliance, the most widely used ones in China are still solvent-based inks containing benzene. The environment-friendly inks without benzene and ketones are still in an embarrassing situation that is difficult to promote.

However, this situation is changing. Fan Jiaxuan, president of New Oriental Ink Co., Ltd., said that China’s environmental ink production has undergone a process of upgrading from benzene-free ketones to benzene-free, ketone-free, and alcohol-based waters. Currently, in the domestic ink industry, Already 50% of companies are producing environmentally friendly inks. It is believed that within one to two years, the entire ink industry will complete the transition to producing environmentally friendly inks. In addition, large-scale flexible packaging companies represented by Master Kong, Want Want, Wahaha, and Nestle have adopted full-scale benzene-free composite inks this year.

Question: The Three Faces of Popularization The industry believes that environmental protection inks are not popular in the country, mainly because of the following three reasons.

The first is the lack of clear support for relevant regulatory standards.

At present, China's current regulations do not explicitly prohibit the production and use of solvent-based inks containing benzene, nor do they use identification marks that contain benzene-free and ketone-free inks.

In terms of standards, Yang Weimin proposed that although China had issued a national standard for plastic composite packaging films in 1998, a specific indicator for limiting the amount of benzene residues was added in 2003 - no more than 3 mg per square meter. . However, it is regrettable that this standard is only a recommended standard, not a national mandatory standard, and it has not actually been effectively implemented. The reporter reviewed the criteria mentioned above and also found that only one national standard is mandatory, and others are recommendations.

Second, the current performance of "green ink" on the market is still not perfect.

China's ink industry has grown from 22 companies 30 years ago to today's more than 4,700. How many green inks are there in the real sense? He Xianwei, chairman of Yiwu Weihang Inkjet Co., Ltd., quoted Liu Jiaju, an ink industry expert, as saying: “At present, many people who develop environmentally friendly inks have rushed to provide less perfect inks for packaging and printing users. , It is not bad in adhesion, that is, the gloss is not good; it is not that the film is dried slowly, that is, the price is high; it is not poor in printing, it is necessary to add drying facilities.

“Yang Weimin said that although some environmental protection inks are safer and more environmentally friendly, their color is not as bright as benzene-based inks, and it is difficult to accept them for the market.

Third, environmental protection inks have increased the cost of enterprises and made it difficult to popularize.

The blind and unorderly competition in the printing industry over the years has made the current printing company's production capacity far exceed the social needs. Yang Weimin believes that this has led most companies to adopt the wrong concept of focusing on cost and quality. However, the price of environmental protection ink is relatively expensive, and printing companies are not accustomed to using it. This has virtually increased the production cost of enterprises and is therefore difficult to popularize.

Countermeasures: Pushing upstream and downstream to join forces in the global call for low-carbon environmental protection, food packaging security concept is firmly rooted in people today, how to carry out green printing, promotion of environmental protection ink? Experts in the printing and packaging industry gave their opinions on the forum.

The first is to eliminate the production of non-environmental inks from the source.

Executive Vice President and Secretary General Dong Jinshi of the International Food Packaging Association believes that in order to eliminate the production of non-environmental inks from the source, ink companies should do the following: not to use illegal raw materials in the production process, and strictly follow the technological requirements, and In the product description, the added substances, the range of use, and the maximum amount of use, especially the ink products used for food packaging materials, are marked.

The second is to popularize gravure printing ink and printing knowledge and improve the level of application technology.

Yang Weimin believes that the quality of gravure printing presses in China is uneven. As there are no national production standards, except for a few imported machines, many gravure printing press designs are unreasonable and production is not standardized, which makes the same type of inks printed on different printing machines. The effect of the product is very different. In addition, China's plastic flexible packaging production and application technology still remains at the perceptual stage of understanding, has not yet formed a theory that can learn from inheritance, most press operators are self-learning in the equipment operation, which led to the same kind of ink printed in a different team The effect is not the same. Therefore, in order to vigorously promote environmental protection inks, it is necessary to strengthen gravure printing technology and use ink knowledge training.

The third is to strengthen technical exchanges through industry associations and create identification marks for environmentally-friendly inks.

Yang Weimin advocates the creation of an identification mark for eco-friendly ink, and also holds technical exchange activities through industry associations from time to time. Dong Jinshi believes that printing companies should increase the limits for the migration of specified substances in the food packaging instructions and clearly define the detection methods for migration limits in product standards.